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It was this:
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This is one of those "your mileage may vary" posts, but I figured after putting nearly every power adder mod on this car, followed by every motor mount and traction bar, I would share my experience, and what I would do if I could start from scratch again. Keep in mind, my goals for this car were to eventually make as much straight line power I could on the stock block. I don't autocross and this is my DD. I know that this is the wrong car for straight line, but it ticked every box in every other category I was looking for in a DD.
When I first got my car, I knew I was immediately going to be modifying it. After all, I've been wrenching on cars for the past 20 years. Like most of us, I started with a RMM and intake, with a Cobb AP3 and off the shelf tune. Then I started getting into the custom tuning game and hired Stratified to start doing my tunes. When I started topping that out with the stock turbo, I thought "well, the next sensible modification would be a big turbo" and then did that. At this point, my biggest gripe with this car (both before and after upgrading the turbo), was the lack of traction. I thought "How could Ford release a car that's this powerful from the factory, with as much potential on the stock engine as there is, but not offer a limited slip option like VW does"? Naturally, Ford did this to keep the cost down, and I can't really hate on them too much for it. The logistics of offering the Limited Slip as an option at the price point these cars go for would make less financial sense I suppose. After all, even sticker price is still a really great value for what you get in this car. Then again, I also remembered that the ST I got came with Perelli PZero Neros, which aren't the best for traction since they are "All Season". Even still, I read so many reviews of the stock Eagle F1's, which didn't make them seem much better than the Pirellis I was on.
Let's back up to the turbo install. I ended up going with an ATP GTX2867r with the bigger .86ar housing. I thought "well I can't hook up down low anyhow, I'll go with the bigger housing with more top end headroom, even if it has a slower spool time. I'm not putting down that power anyway right?". I was right to a degree. But as the tuning iterations from Stratified kept getting more aggressive, I was starting to spin at the top of 3rd into 4th. Then I put in an Aux Fuel kit and started running an E40 tune (jumped on a good deal on a used kit that I couldn't resist), but the traction was absolutely useless until 4th gear. Having a car putting down around 400hp and not being able to use over 100 of them was frustrating. I tried going with a traction bar and PSMM to further increase grip. While this helped, I still wasn't able to put most of the power down, and was feathering the car mostly into 3rd and burning rubber into the top of 3rd into 4th gear before the front end finally calmed down. At this point, you could call me stupid for being already unhappy with the lack of traction, and then opting for more power on top of that, and you'd be totally justified.
So after putting some thought into it, and chasing traction down a seemingly never ending rabbit hole and with winter coming up, I finally said "screw it". I had an aversion to ripping out the transmission even though I've done this job before, because mostly I knew that while I was in there, I'd have to swap out the stock clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, diff bearings, axle seals and diff/flywheel bolts - totaling over $2,000 in parts and tools that I'd need for the job. I saw that MFactory had a helical LSD option similar to the Quaife but at a more attractive price point by a few hundred bucks. I hopped on that and a clutch/flywheel from ACT, which was the newest option for our car, but had been getting good reviews. After 20 hours of labor, lots of cursing, drinking and swearing that this was my "last transmission job" (it's not, I know I'll be hard headed and do another stupid job like this with my next car), everything was finally in and buttoned up.
I've had the kit in for about 1,000 miles and after breaking in the clutch and pressure plate, I am very happy with the results of the added traction, and having that power actually be usable. While I am still getting tire spin, 2nd and 3rd are actually usable in a straight line. It's also very cold out and I'm still on all seasons. This is something that will only get better in warmer weather with better tires - and to that point, I can actually drive this car in the snow and ice, where last winter, I had to basically park it any time there was a light snowfall.
Traction: That was always my gripe with this car - the ST looked great on paper but in reality the fun factor was shrouded by wheel hop and one spinning tire. Adding a limited slip has made me love this car again. I'm wondering what it may have been like going with this from the START. I am sure this car would be an absolute blast with a stock turbo, tune and an LSD. I would have inevitably gotten to the point of going big turbo with auxiliary fuel, but I sort of wished I would have done it the other way around - taking care of traction first and then adding more power. I think I would have enjoyed this car more along the line.
That's my story. Hopefully someone with similar goals to mine reads this before getting too deep into the mod game. Has anyone gone this route (traction first, power second)? If so, what were your thoughts?
This is one of those "your mileage may vary" posts, but I figured after putting nearly every power adder mod on this car, followed by every motor mount and traction bar, I would share my experience, and what I would do if I could start from scratch again. Keep in mind, my goals for this car were to eventually make as much straight line power I could on the stock block. I don't autocross and this is my DD. I know that this is the wrong car for straight line, but it ticked every box in every other category I was looking for in a DD.
When I first got my car, I knew I was immediately going to be modifying it. After all, I've been wrenching on cars for the past 20 years. Like most of us, I started with a RMM and intake, with a Cobb AP3 and off the shelf tune. Then I started getting into the custom tuning game and hired Stratified to start doing my tunes. When I started topping that out with the stock turbo, I thought "well, the next sensible modification would be a big turbo" and then did that. At this point, my biggest gripe with this car (both before and after upgrading the turbo), was the lack of traction. I thought "How could Ford release a car that's this powerful from the factory, with as much potential on the stock engine as there is, but not offer a limited slip option like VW does"? Naturally, Ford did this to keep the cost down, and I can't really hate on them too much for it. The logistics of offering the Limited Slip as an option at the price point these cars go for would make less financial sense I suppose. After all, even sticker price is still a really great value for what you get in this car. Then again, I also remembered that the ST I got came with Perelli PZero Neros, which aren't the best for traction since they are "All Season". Even still, I read so many reviews of the stock Eagle F1's, which didn't make them seem much better than the Pirellis I was on.
Let's back up to the turbo install. I ended up going with an ATP GTX2867r with the bigger .86ar housing. I thought "well I can't hook up down low anyhow, I'll go with the bigger housing with more top end headroom, even if it has a slower spool time. I'm not putting down that power anyway right?". I was right to a degree. But as the tuning iterations from Stratified kept getting more aggressive, I was starting to spin at the top of 3rd into 4th. Then I put in an Aux Fuel kit and started running an E40 tune (jumped on a good deal on a used kit that I couldn't resist), but the traction was absolutely useless until 4th gear. Having a car putting down around 400hp and not being able to use over 100 of them was frustrating. I tried going with a traction bar and PSMM to further increase grip. While this helped, I still wasn't able to put most of the power down, and was feathering the car mostly into 3rd and burning rubber into the top of 3rd into 4th gear before the front end finally calmed down. At this point, you could call me stupid for being already unhappy with the lack of traction, and then opting for more power on top of that, and you'd be totally justified.
So after putting some thought into it, and chasing traction down a seemingly never ending rabbit hole and with winter coming up, I finally said "screw it". I had an aversion to ripping out the transmission even though I've done this job before, because mostly I knew that while I was in there, I'd have to swap out the stock clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, diff bearings, axle seals and diff/flywheel bolts - totaling over $2,000 in parts and tools that I'd need for the job. I saw that MFactory had a helical LSD option similar to the Quaife but at a more attractive price point by a few hundred bucks. I hopped on that and a clutch/flywheel from ACT, which was the newest option for our car, but had been getting good reviews. After 20 hours of labor, lots of cursing, drinking and swearing that this was my "last transmission job" (it's not, I know I'll be hard headed and do another stupid job like this with my next car), everything was finally in and buttoned up.
I've had the kit in for about 1,000 miles and after breaking in the clutch and pressure plate, I am very happy with the results of the added traction, and having that power actually be usable. While I am still getting tire spin, 2nd and 3rd are actually usable in a straight line. It's also very cold out and I'm still on all seasons. This is something that will only get better in warmer weather with better tires - and to that point, I can actually drive this car in the snow and ice, where last winter, I had to basically park it any time there was a light snowfall.
Traction: That was always my gripe with this car - the ST looked great on paper but in reality the fun factor was shrouded by wheel hop and one spinning tire. Adding a limited slip has made me love this car again. I'm wondering what it may have been like going with this from the START. I am sure this car would be an absolute blast with a stock turbo, tune and an LSD. I would have inevitably gotten to the point of going big turbo with auxiliary fuel, but I sort of wished I would have done it the other way around - taking care of traction first and then adding more power. I think I would have enjoyed this car more along the line.
That's my story. Hopefully someone with similar goals to mine reads this before getting too deep into the mod game. Has anyone gone this route (traction first, power second)? If so, what were your thoughts?
